2/3/23, 2:10 AM 5 Top Tips For Teaching Anatomy and Physiology

ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY | HEALTH SCIENCE | TEACHING STRATEGIES

5 Top Tips For Teaching Anatomy

and Physiology

December 30th, 2021 | 7 min. read

Brad Hummel
Coming from a family of educators, Brad knows both the joys and challenges of teaching
well. Through his own teaching background, he’s experienced both firsthand. As a writer for
AES, Brad’s goal is to help teachers empower their students through listening to educators’
concerns and creating content that answers their most pressing questions about career and
technical education.

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2/3/23, 2:10 AM 5 Top Tips For Teaching Anatomy and Physiology

As a high school anatomy and physiology teacher, you know it’s crucial to
engage your students in critical content early and often. With so much
important material to commit to memory, CTE health science students
need to start their anatomy and physiology courses off on the right foot.

That’s why whether you are new to teaching or are facing fresh
challenges, it’s important to find and implement teaching strategies that
will work for you and your learners.

In this article, you’ll discover five of the best strategies you can use
to improve your anatomy and physiology classes right away:

1. Focus on the Health Science Context

2. Focus on Medical Terminology
3. Use Lab-Based Instruction When Possible
4. Assess Early and Often
5. Implement Engagement Strategies

When you’ve finished reading, you’ll be more prepared to face challenges

in your anatomy and physiology classes and help your students succeed.

1. Focus on the Health Science Context

The first and perhaps most important strategy for teaching anatomy and
physiology is to focus on its specific applications to CTE health science.

Teaching anatomy and physiology for students in a career and

technical education pathway is surprisingly different from a regular
high school anatomy course. 

Wh t i l hi h h l l
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2/3/23, 2:10 AM 5 Top Tips For Teaching Anatomy and Physiology
Whereas a typical high school class will learn the material as part of a
general science curriculum, your students need to understand the unique
applications of anatomy and physiology to careers in healthcare.

Because your students will soon be working in clinical settings, their

specific knowledge of anatomy and physiology will quickly be put to the
test. That’s why it’s even more critical for them to understand the essential
value of the material and develop a working knowledge of the body and its
system.

Whenever possible, focus on ideas and examples that apply directly

to students’ intended health professions. Providing this context will go
a long way toward helping your students better connect with and
understand anatomy and physiology. In turn, they’ll be more invested and
engaged and be able to use what they’ve learned to be successful in the
future.

2. Focus on Medical Terminology

While medical terms are an integral part of many health science courses,
nowhere is it more critical than in anatomy and physiology. This is mainly
due to the sheer amount of material students need to memorize to fully
understand the human body and its systems. 

In other words, understanding medical terminology is critical for students’

performance in health careers. Practicing and cementing medical
terminology now will set students up for success throughout their lives. 

Much like studying vocabulary or geography, disciplined memorization of

medical terms leads to a working knowledge that future health
professionals will rely on in clinical settings.
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Even if students have already studied medical terminology as part of

another course, it’s essential to review these terms frequently in
your anatomy classes.

There are a lot of methods you can use to review this material, such as
one of several popular medical terminology textbooks or lesson plans for
high school teachers.

However, if you’re working with students who have already learned

medical terminology, you might not need to spend time with a textbook or
an elaborate lesson plan. Sometimes, the best ways to motivate your
students are through interactive activities and games.

If you’re looking for an easy way to bring a renewed focus on

medical terminology into your anatomy and physiology course,
consider one of these engaging medical terminology games. 

Your learners may think they’re just having fun in the classroom, but
they’ll be cementing the language of health science professions that will
help them in your course and for decades to come.

3. Use Lab-Based Instruction When

Possible

No anatomy and physiology course is truly complete without a robust lab-

based component. Although opportunities to work in a lab are often
available throughout a student’s high school health science courses,
they’re instrumental in studying anatomy.

The human body consists of complex, interconnected systems that can be

difficult to contextualize and understand. Visual aids, demonstrations, and
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lab exercises help students develop better knowledge of anatomy and

physiology through tangible, interactive experiences.

Depending on the resources available to you, lab-based instruction

can occur in class, at home, or in the field. Some common examples
of lab-based education include:

Teacher demonstrations
Class dissections
Working with models
Health career field experiences
At-home instruction kits

While you might be limited by your school’s financial resources or

partnerships with local medical institutions, the best laboratory
experiences often involve students working on their own or in groups.

Whether partnering with students on a dissection or building a model from

Anatomy in Clay, students can develop a strong appreciation of anatomy
and physiology through direct experience. As importantly, collaborating
with others helps health science students gain valuable soft skills
essential to working in a clinical environment.

4. Assess Early and Often

Experienced educators know the importance of assessing students early

and often throughout the learning process. While your students might
bemoan taking yet another test, these assessments are essential to
quantify their success in health science.

Giving frequent assessments, even simple quizzes and knowledge

checks, is considered by many to be a best practice to ensure
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students retain information. This is especially true for anatomy and

physiology classes, where these little tests could be the difference
between students staying on track or falling behind.

If assessing students frequently sounds complicated and time-consuming,

the reality is that it doesn’t have to be. You can use bell ringer activities
and questions to focus students’ attention on learning at the beginning of
class. Tickets out the door are an effective way to verify their
understanding at the end of the day.

If you’re looking for an even more streamlined assessment process,

a blended learning platform often includes ways to check students’
knowledge through automatically graded quizzes and tests.

5. Implement Engagement Strategies

Ultimately, your anatomy and physiology students will learn the most
when they are connected and committed to learning the course material.
To ensure your students are confident, you’ll want to use strategies that
enhance and develop student engagement.

There are many effective engagement strategies that teachers can use to
pique student interest in anatomy and physiology and other CTE health
science courses. While any single approach can be successful on its own,
the best teachers typically use a combination of several different
techniques to get the most from their students.

Some popular engagement strategies teachers have found success

with include:

Taking creative instructional approaches that increase interest and

understanding
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Promoting active learning instead of relying on passive learning

Implementing curriculum with engaging instructional design
Utilizing blended learning to encourage engagement while limiting
screen time

Overall, the more engaging you can be in the classroom, the better your
learners will internalize the essential lessons they need to understand.
Engaged students see better results on assessments and certifications
and are the most prepared to enter the workforce as healthcare
professionals.

If you’re struggling to find a simple way to engage your students

better, consider a strategy like blended learning that keeps students
focused in multiple ways at the same time. This way, you can save
time while keeping your classes excited about anatomy and physiology.

Set Your Anatomy and Physiology

Students Up For Success
Learning the fundamentals of anatomy and physiology is the key to a
working knowledge of the human body and its systems. That means, to
set your students up for success, you’ll want to do everything you can to
teach this topic effectively.

In this article, you’ve learned five effective teaching strategies that will go
a long way to ensuring your students achieve their goals. Not only will
they be better equipped to do well in their remaining health science
courses, but they’ll also have learned key skills that will help them
become adept health science professionals.

However, you shouldn’t stop at just using solid teaching strategies.

Often, teachers benefit from some of the best high school anatomy
and physiology activities recommended by other teachers. You can
use these activities right away to connect with your students and
keep them learning.

When you read this article, you’ll learn about four top activities
teachers find compelling and engaging when teaching their anatomy
students. After reading, you’ll be even more prepared to teach
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students. After reading, you ll be even more prepared to teach
anatomy and physiology to health science students successfully.

Discover the Best High School Anatomy and

Physiology Activities

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